7th Annual Korean Festival

The 7th Annual Korean Festival was held on Saturday, July 12 at Kapiolani Park. Parking was hell, but what a great chance to grab some Korean food, then skip across the street to grab some waves — and they were great that day, too!

The Korean Festival is held every summer and it features Korean food, booths, a cultural display, a whole row of bouncing castles for the kids, and a day full of entertainment — from traditional peasant dances to Korean hip-hop groups.

My one disappointment was that the cultural display, while featuring traditional Korean clothes and art, was half-filled with K-drama posters and merchandise. While they are easy to be addicted to and certainly showcase the Korean culture to others worldwide — to quote a friend, “Everything I know about Korea, I learned from K-dramas” — uhm… You could have done better than that, guys…

Korean BBQ Chicken and Shrimp over white rice, with kimchi and mac salad. Yum!

“Azuki Bowl” from Waiola Shave Ice. Azuki beans, mochi, and condensed milk over “special milk flavor” shave ice.

That milk flavor was amazing.

Lodging, Hospitality, and Foodservice Expo

The 14th annual Hawaii Lodging, Hospitality, and Foodservice Expo was held yesterday and today (July 9 and 10, 2008) at the Neil S. Blaisdell Center. Closed to the public, the expo serves the members of Hawaii’s $10 billion/year hospitality market.

The expo features a variety of products, equipment, and services, including: bathroom fixtures, computer software, paper goods, glassware, uniforms, landscaping, refrigeration, shipping and transportation…

And of course, food!

For mere food bloggers like me, the draw of sneaking into the expo is the dizzying amount of food samples available, from beverages (Italian sodas, Torani smoothies, a lot of alcohol), to entrees (pastas, sandwiches, manapua, thai curry, sashimi), to desserts (cookies, cakes, macarons, chocolate covered strawberries.)

My favorite, however, were the fresh fruits provided by Armstrong Produce. I visited their booth throughout the day — I have no shame! — to munch on cherries, dragonfruit, mango/peach hybrids, and the sweetest pineapple I have ever tasted.

I can’t think of the name of the pineapple, but it’s a new variety that is being introduced. It is delicious and sweet with a very low acidity.  The label is blue with gold lettering and it should be available throughout the island — I’ve seen it at Foodland, Daiei, and the military commisaries.

If there is one thing I saw at the expo that I want to share with you, it’s the pineapple. Maui Gold had a booth, and their pineapple was fine. But I command you, right now, to get down to your grocery store and look for the pineapple with a blue and gold label.

It is astoundingly sweet.. You really must try it. :)

A little fancier than your typical chocolate cup. The pink streaks on the tulips are gorgeous, but the white chocolate seashells are truly impressive.

Stouffer’s Thai Red Chicken Curry

I am trying to figure out whether or not featuring Thai Red Chicken Curry was a good idea. Frankly, it was terrible stuff. And featuring it in an expo in *Hawaii* where real, delicious Thai curry is available makes it quickly and easily susceptible to criticism.

The answer lies in how people reacted to this. Either, “Oh, god. That’s terrible. Stouffer’s is a terrible company!” or “Oh, god. That’s terrible… But not bad for an american company attempting to make Thai food for an american palete.”

Ehh… I’ll go with the first. Sorry. :(

Frozen cakes… I’m sure the loads of butter and sugar in them are what do the trick, but they sure were gooooood.

Patis Macarons… That made me giggle.

It of course didn’t stop me from trying one of every flavor!

And with that, I encourage you to attend this fall’s (open to the public!) foodservice expo. :)

080708 – Today’s Bento (10)

Rice over Redondo’s hotdogs sauteed with soysauce and onions, decorated with cucumber slices. For dessert: azuki bean mochi, dried goji berries, and rum raisin bread pudding.

Uhm… I ate all the cucumber, then went straight for the dessert. Mmm, bread pudding… Hiding the entree under the rice is a good technique for avoiding spills. I especially do this when I eat curry. Make sure to first pack some rice to the side of the entree, then push it against the entree to ensure against it leaking onto your other foods — like your precious slice of bread pudding.

Coconuts!!!

FOURTEEN of them!!

Knowing that I was coming home for the summer break, one of my uncles set aside his coconuts for me.

I am a very happy girl. :)

Daichi Ramen

Next to the old Morning Glory store in Aiea, across the street from the medical building, is humble Daichi Ramen. The picture menu is straight-forward, the kitchen is exposed for customers to watch, and the service is polite.

The fried rice was surprisingly good and I think they make their own gyoza. Once when I went it was shrimp and vegetable gyoza, this time it was ginger and pork.

My only complaint is that the shoyu and condiments bottles are oily. This is even more of an annoyance when you think you’ve wiped the oil from your fingers, then lift your hand from your camera to find an oily fingerprint on its case. :(

But, otherwise, this is a decent place for ramen.

Miso Ramen Meal (with fried rice and 4 gyoza)

Well-flavored, although the slice of pork was a really terrible cut of meat. But this goes for all ramen places. I almost never eat the accompanying piece of meat when I go out for ramen.

This was a very filling meal, and at $7.95 the price was just great!

Soba noodles

Romy’s Kahuku Prawns & Shrimp, Inc.

Lining Kamehameha Highway on O’ahu’s North Shore are a number of shrimp trucks. The only one that I continually return to, however, is Romy’s Kahuku Prawns & Shrimp, Inc. Unlike all of the other shrimp trucks, Romy’s can boast that its prawns and shrimp are freshly caught.. just twenty feet from their shop, actually!

Reid of ‘Ono Kine Grindz reviewed Romy’s last year, but out of love for Romy’s, I must contest his post. :)

He noted Romy’s shrimp and prawns for their freshness, but found that the sauces they were cooked in were lacking. I’d like to point out that a preference between Giovanni’s or Romy’s will depend on what you’re looking for.

Take a bite of Giovanni’s garlic butter shrimp and what do you taste? That delicious, sinful garlic butter sauce that make their shrimp truck so popular.

The point of Romy’s is the freshness of their shrimp and prawns. The flavors are scaled back so that the sweetness of the shrimp is complimented by the garlic butter sauce. While Romy’s garlic butter sauce lacks the punch of Giovanni’s, it showcases the taste of fresh shrimp.

Oh. But I totally agree with Reid on the sweet-sour shrimp. Skip it.

My recommendation is to go for the prawns, simply steamed and served with two sauces on the side. The prawns are sweet, succulent.

And with their long claws and large, beady eyes, they are pretty fun to chase people around with.

There’s a fruit stand somewhere along the highway, with a sign that advertises “Kahuku Super Sweet Corn.” (Yeah, there must be a bunch of stands with that sign.) The fruit stand is run by an old Filipino couple, and along with fresh and cooked Kahuku corn, they sell mangoes, guavas, and many other fruit.

I stopped there about a month ago to pick up some corn and when I told the Filipino woman that my family and I were hanging around the North Shore because we came to eat shrimp, she asked where we’d eaten.

“At Romy’s, of course!” was my mother’s response. “They are the only ones with fresh shrimp and prawns.”

The Filipino woman nodded in agreement, and explained that she grew up eating fresh seafood in a fishing village in the Philippines. “At Giovanni’s, they just put a lot of flavorings. The shrimp doesn’t even have any taste because it’s frozen. But at Romy’s you can really taste that it’s fresh.”

Voila, if you were looking for an expert’s opinion.

But my recommendation is this: If you are looking for absolutely delicious garlic butter shrimp, whose sauce you’ll want to pour down your throat, with your head tilted back and eyes closed.. there’s Giovanni’s, or any of the other shrimp trucks.

But for the sweetness, succulence, and delicacy of fresh shrimp and prawns, Romy’s is the only place to go.

Romy’s Kahuku Prawns & Shrimp, Inc.
56-781 Kamehameha Highway
(808) 232-2202

Bistro Green Papaya

A regular lunch stop…

Chicken Pho

Vietnamese Chicken Curry on Rice Noodles

Vietnamese Sour Soup

In order: Good but chicken was tough, okay, good and warming.

It’s not the *best* Vietnamse food, but it’s still pretty dang good. The lemon grass chicken and shrimp aren’t so great — I am pretty sure they use a readymade marinade.

But I recommend the barbeque chicken and spring rolls on rice noodles. $9.95, filling, fresh, and oh so delicious in this heat.

Bistro Green Papaya
555 North King St.
Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 841-6988

Today’s Bento (9)

Thin spaghetti pasta tossed with brocolli, crab, and a lot of fresh herbs. Bing cherries and dried goji berries.